Larry Bird knew what it took to win an NBA championship. However, he also knew winning back-to-back titles was a tall order since all teams wanted to bring down the Celtics. There is no question that the Boston Celtics made their mark as one of the most successful franchises in the NBA. They pride themselves on multiple championships, including a rare six-peat (1959 to 1966) and back-to-back titles in 1968 and 1969.

However, the game evolved, making it harder for teams to repeat as champions. After winning the 1984 title, Bird and his teammates knew that bagging the 1985 crown would be difficult.

Celtics were a hard target

The Celtics knew it would be difficult to make it back-to-back NBA title romps in the 1984-85 season. After showing what they could do, opposing teams would resort to strategies to bring the Bean Town squad down. As far as Larry Legend was concerned, they were walking targets. He believed that whether they were champs or not, opposing teams wanted to bring them down because of their rich heritage.

"It doesn't matter if we are champs or not," Bird stated via UPI. "They always gun for us because we're the Celtics."

One team that was seeking payback was the Los Angeles Lakers. The Purple and Gold were on a redemption run, seeking to avenge their 1984 NBA Finals loss to the Celtics.

Boston was pretty much aware of this. However, they had to recalibrate themselves to repeat as champions. Celtics coach K.C. Jones was confident they could do it. However, for Boston to do so, he needed to find a way to keep his players on the same page.

"You have to keep that winning atmosphere, where it is a matter of working and executing, starting with Game 1 and then building again," Jones stated.

Celtics crumble

Bird was tasked to keep the Celtics together during the 1984-85 season. He needed to find a way to keep Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and the rest motivated if they were to repeat as champs.

But as fate would have it, the 6th overall pick of the 1978 Draft would have problems of his own. He had his share of struggles, some of which came at the worst time that season. Hence, all Bird could do was hope for the best to get the Celtics back on track.

Unfortunately, Boston found Los Angeles too challenging to handle. The Lakers had too many weapons, which the Celtics were unable to contain. The Celtics ended up losing to the Lakers in six games. What made that 1985 NBA Finals even more painful was the fact that LA won the championship at Boston's own turf, the Boston Garden. The Lakers were the only team to win the NBA title as visitors in that arena.

Related: When Larry Bird claimed that the LA Lakers weren't the biggest rivals of the Boston Celtics: "Nothing was better than those Philly games"